A pair of US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles fly over northern Iraq after conducting airstrikes in Syria.(Photo by: REUTERS)

Wall-to-wall support in Israel for US attack on Syria

By GIL HOFFMAN04/09/2017

US President Donald Trump’s decision to strike a Syrian air base received praise from across the Israeli political spectrum over the weekend, with Meretz and the Likud reactions indistinguishable in their support.

“When crimes against humanity take place, the world cannot stand aside,” Meretz chairwoman Zehava Gal-On said. “Trump was right to respond and make clear that the use of chemical weapons will not be tolerated. His test will be whether the Americans see themselves as obligated to end the war in Syria and defend the civilians there, even at the price of a conflict with Russia.”

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog said the American attack was “an important message to the butcher from Damascus.”

It happened at the right time and at the right place, he said.

His Zionist Union colleague, MK Tzipi Livni, wrote on Twitter in English that the US attack sent an “important message not only to Assad but to all rogue states and terrorist actors” that they cannot get away with using nonconventional weapons.

Likud MK Oren Hazan also tweeted in English, quoting the 1966 movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: “When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk.” Hazan added a reference to Trump’s campaign slogan: “Mr. President, you definitely don’t talk – you make America great again!” Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) called the strike “a necessary step of leadership in light of the chaos in the Middle East.”

Bayit Yehudi MK Moti Yogev thanked Trump and said the attack was “a reminder to humanity that someone is now in charge.”